This is the latest news about South Africa Vs New Zealand Semi-Final today. At the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, ICC Hall of Famer Ricky Ponting has made his forecast for the second semi-final between South Africa and New Zealand. When they play New Zealand in Lahore on Wednesday in the second Champions Trophy semi, South Africa hopes to reach a third ICC final in the space of a year.
In addition to their success in the 2024 T20 World Cup final and their qualification for the ICC World Test Championship final, which is scheduled for mid-year, the Proteas are establishing a routine of participating in major cricket events. A New Zealand side stacked with skill stands in their way of locking in yet another appearance in a decider. Currently both inside the top five ODI rankings of the ICC, it is a collision of two cricketing heavyweights.
ICC Hall of Famer Ricky Ponting has expressed his expectations for the Champions Trophy semi-final, but this match-up is nearly impossible to predict. Ponting answered Sanjana Ganesan on The ICC Review Podcast*, saying he expects the Proteas to keep their perfect run of results, which so far consists of two strong victories over England and Afghanistan (their group stage match was canceled).
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“They have a good side, South Africa,” he said. ” Looking at both sides, that South African line-up seems to have just a small bit more class. “(South Africa bats) deep; they have an opener that is in really good form in Ryan Rickelton and a strong middle order. Rabada looks to be going well.” Marco Jansen took three wickets in his last game. “So I simply feel they might just have a little bit too much power for New Zealand.”
Ponting did observe, though, that if the Black Caps beat the Proteas, their penchant for solving problems will come first. They simply find a way, he remarked. “They will be difficult to surpass once more and deserve to be there.” Having already shown to be a difference-maker several times in the Champions Trophy, Glenn Phillips’s fielding is central to that point. On Sunday, he caught still another remarkable catch against India: the wicket of Virat Kohli, no less.
“It’s about the moment, too; it’s about who it is; it’s about the time in the game,” he said. “That has a bigger impact than catching that against one of the tail-enders when it’s the opposition’s best player or when you could eliminate Virat. Taking a catch like that could change everything. And this is also the reason we all give our fielding so much effort.
Wednesday, at 2pm local time, South Africa’s semi-final encounter with New Zealand in Lahore gets underway.
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